There is a story, perhaps apocraphal, that Fritz Wiesner was climbing at Breakneck with a group from NY when, far in the distance, he spotted the light reflecting from the Gunks. On a subsequent weekend he travelled up there in search of the cliffs, walked in to Millbrook, and Gunks climbing was born.

"An oft-told legend of American rock climbing concerns that brilliantly clear moment following an afternoon thundershower when Fritz Weissner and his party topped out on Breakneck Ridge, gazed off to the northwest and saw...the future of northeastern rock climbing." -Yankee Rock & Ice

Not that this adds anything new to the conversation, but at least it's poetic and published hearsay ;)

There is a lot of nice climbing in the hudson valley, and some of it has bolts from the last couple decades, implying someone is up to something up there. Which would make sense when Mohonk is such a zoo-fest on weekends. Rock climbing is not a crime! They're in it with the aliens. We can't climb along the Husdon river because they're building landing strips for gay martians. I swear to God Stuart...